


Books and Butterflies

by GinnyLily



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Books, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff, Slowly Falling For Each Other, Swearing, ooc charlie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 03:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7417234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyLily/pseuds/GinnyLily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Books are good icebreakers, she decides. How lucky that she's working in a place with lots of icebreakers when one day a stranger strides in and there are suddenly hundreds of butterflies in her stomach...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Books and Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot of fun to write! It turned out pretty long but I hope you like it :)
> 
> (Y/N) = your name  
> (Y/L/N) = your last name  
> (Y/H/C) = your hair color

Humming – slightly out of tune – the melody of whatever song it was that she had heard last on the radio on her way here, she was jogging up the many steps to the old and tall building in which she worked. It was a beautiful morning in early September, the sun already high up in the sky filling the air with its warmth. The building had an air condition that made it always a little bit too chilly inside but she was used to that by now.

Without interrupting her humming she quickly greeted the security guard in the entrance hall before opening a door marked as “private”. In the staff room she took off her coat and put it along with her bag in her locker. Then she checked her hair and makeup in the little mirror above the sink and finally left the room to sit at her desk.

As always when she entered the circular main room she had to stop for a few seconds and take it all in. The smell of books and dust, the many high shelves tightly packed with all sorts of old and new literature, the high windows through which warm sunlight shone into the room and the quiet footsteps on the thickly carpeted floor. Only the silent hum of the aircon disturbed the beautiful picture.

In an exceptionally good mood she walked, skipped almost, over to the reception desk in front of one of the high windows and sat down behind the counter on her comfortable office chair.

She was just flicking through one of the books that had been handed back earlier to check for any damage (usually people treated the books carefully but there were always some rowdies that had no idea how to treat her precious babies) when somebody cleared their throat in front of her.

She looked up to find an extraordinarily tall man – almost a boy, he couldn't be much older than her – standing in front of the desk. He was wearing blue jeans and a red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The top buttons of the shirt were undone and it looked like he was wearing nothing underneath, save for some sort of necklace. At least she guessed that the thin black cord around his neck was part of a necklace.

“Hi,” she said cheerfully (but in a low voice, this was a library after all!) and a little bit nervous. “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” he replied with a deep voice, that made her shiver. “I've been looking for this book...” He pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Sure, I'll look. Give me a sec.” She flattened out the paper in front of her and then typed title and author into the computer on her desk.

“ _Not available”_ appeared in red letters on the screen.

“I'm sorry, it's currently borrowed by someone else. But if you like, we can call you, as soon as it's back.”

“That would be great, thank you,” the man said in his deep voice and she shivered again. It was a pleasant shiver.

“Do you already have a library card?”

“Yes. My name is Dean Winchester. I think my number should be in your database?”

She typed _“Dean Winchester”_ into the computer and then nodded. “Yes, you're there.” She made a note. “Okay, we'll call you when the book's available. Anything else I can assist you with?”

But to her disappointment he shook his head. “No, that's all. Thank you very much...” he glanced at her name tag. “...(Y/N).”

“No problem,” she smiled.

“Okay...see you, when the book is back then.” And without another word he turned around and left the library.

–

Two days later the book was handed back and after making sure it was still in the same shape as before, she reached for the phone. She wasn't the biggest fan of phoning people but she was usually okay with it. That's why she couldn't explain her increased heartbeat and her dry mouth when she called Dean Winchester's number.

It rang four times before the line clicked and a deep voice said: “Winchester?”

“Um...hi. (Y/L/N). From the library. Your-your book is here, Mr Winchester,” she stuttered and felt herself blush. Thank god there wasn't anyone around to see her red face.

“Oh, that's great. Thank you. I'll come and pick it up right away.”

“Okay,” she managed but he had already hung up.

–

“Hi. Sorry it took so long.”

She looked up to see the tall man again. This time he wore the plaid shirt as a jacket over a black t-shirt. The cord around his neck was indeed a necklace; a small golden head with an engraved face dangling in the middle. 

“Hi.” Her face felt hot and she was pretty sure it was bright red. “No-no problem. Here is your book, Mr Winchester.”

He leaned down to take the book from her. His eyes were green, dark in the dim light. He had a slight stubble in his sun-tanned face and that jawline!

“Dean,” he said quietly. “Just call me Dean.” He winked at her. “Thanks for the book.” Then he turned around and left the library without another word.

A strange feeling sat in her stomach. Warm and fuzzy. Was it excitement? But why was she excited? Because of...Dean?

Charlie definitely thought so, when they met for dinner.

“Green eyes, you said?” asked the redhead and took a huge bite from her pizza.

“Yes. Dark green. And shiny. Beautiful eyes.”

Charlie sighed and dropped the piece of pizza she was holding back onto her plate. “Oh dear, don't tell me you have a crush on him!”

“What? No! I don't even know him! I've only seen him two times.” She stared down at her own pizza, unable to start eating.

“Yeah, right,” Charlie snorted. “As if that would stop you from crushing on somebody!”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

“Oh, nothing.” Her best friend sipped on her coke. “Eat. I'm sure you'll figure it out when you see him again.”

–

It took a while. Eight long days during which her thoughts returned to the handsome man more than they should. When she told Charlie about it, her friend was sure that she had been right.

“You totally have a crush on him!”

“I don't know him!” she had repeated but Charlie hadn't cared.

It was late afternoon, her shift was almost over when she heard the deep voice again.

“Hi.”

Dean looked – if possible – even better than the two times before. Because it was raining that day, the lights had already been turned on inside the library and now his eyes looked not as dark but still incredibly green. She had never seen such an intensive color in eyes before.

“Hi,” she replied and smiled. “Have you finished the book already?”

“Yes. And I would like to take out some more.”

“Sure. Can I help you find them?”

“That would be very nice, thank you.”

The library was empty save for an old man sitting on one of the tables, reading a newspaper. She quickly got up and showed Dean the way to the right shelve.

“I'm sorry, you will probably need a ladder, it's quite high -”

But he simply stretched out his arm and took the book from its shelf.

“O-okay,” she breathed, slightly impressed. Standing next to him she realized that he was even taller than she initially thought. Her stomach was feeling warm again and only with great effort she could suppress a giggle that rose in her throat. Why the hell did her body think it was appropriate to giggle now? How old was she? Ten?!

“Are you okay? You look a little...pale.”

She could immediately feel herself blush and let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Unfortunately with the breath the giggle also escaped her mouth.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and blushed even harder. “Is that...all? No more books?” She looked at the pile of books in his arms, slightly sad at the thought that these many books would surely take him a while to go through.

“Yep, all good.”

She checked out the books for him and he said goodbye with a big smile on his face.

–

Books are good icebreakers, she decided.

The library wasn't open on Sundays but when she sat down at the reception desk the next Monday, the phone rang.

“Hi. It's Dean. Winchester.” Her stomach jumped slightly at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, hi.” She blushed. Why did she always blush?! “(Y/N). (Y/L/N). Hi.” God, she was really bad at talking today.

“Hi.” He sounded slightly amused and she just wanted to bang her head onto the desk. “I was wondering if you could check if you had this book...”

Twenty minutes later Dean appeared to pick up a huge _pile_ of books. Again. He handed the other ones back.

“Are you already _finished_ with those?!” she asked in disbelief. She was a quick reader herself but nobody could read _that_ fast – could they?

“Yes, done with them all. I read fast.”

“Me too. But not that fast,” she admitted.

“So, what do you like to read?” he asked, leaning casually against her desk.

“Um...” ' _STOP BLUSHING!'_ she yelled at herself. “Every-everything... You know, fantasy, science-fiction, biographies, romance novels, historic stuff, crime stories – a bit of everything really...”

He laughed quietly. (It was a library after all, you had to be quiet.) “Any recommendations?”

“Uh...yeah. I...”

It took almost five minutes until she was able to form real sentences that didn't contain words like “um” and “uh” and “hm”. But she loved talking about books and so eventually she forgot who she was talking to and relaxed. This was part of why she loved this job. She could talk to other people who loved stories about the stories she had read and about the stories they had read and about stories they had both read.

It turned out that Dean had read a lot of books, that he had been able to read way before he went to school and that he loved books just as much as she did. They talked about their favorite books and books they didn't like and laughed (quietly, this was a library!) about particularly funny and bizarre books.

Unfortunately they were interrupted by a group of people who entered the library and wanted to either give books back or borrow new ones.

“We should continue this talk. But first, I'll read some more.” He pointed at the bag in which he had packed the books to transport them home safely. “See you in a couple of days, (Y/N).”

“Yes.” She had a huge smile on her face. “See you, Dean.”

–

“Butterflies,” Charlie said, eyeing the jeans critically.

“What?”

“Butterflies,” the other woman repeated and put the jeans back on the pile in front of her. “You've got butterflies in your stomach.”

“What?” she said again.

Charlie sighed and moved on to the next section of clothes. “What do you think of this?” She held up a pink t-shirt with some kind of video game reference that (Y/N) didn't understand.

“Looks great,” she mumbled. “What do you mean, butterflies?”

Charlie still held the shirt up, looking at it with a very thoughtful expression. Too thoughtful, considering that she was only buying clothes.

“That feeling in your stomach when you speak with him. Those are butterflies. Not real butterflies of course, but metaphorically speaking.”

“I know that I don't have real butterflies – do you really think I have a crush on him?”

Charlie smiled at the shirt approvingly and started off towards the changing rooms. “Yes, (Y/N), I fear you do have a crush on him. A big crush. But congratulations, you at least managed to talk to him. Unlike the last one.” She pulled a face.

(Y/N) groaned. “Don't remind me of the last one! The shirt looks good on you.”

Charlie had just reappeared. “Does it? Well, what's important is, that you talk to him. Really talk to him, not just about books. Why don't you two go for a coffee or something?”

“I can't just ask him out on a date, I hardly know the guy!”

“Who says it's a date? But okay, if you don't want to... Then maybe you should just casually meet him on the street. Coincidence, you know? You have his phone number in the datebase, is there also an address? If not, that's no problem, I'll get it for you -”

“Charlie!” she cried in horror. “I'm not gonna _stalk_ him!”

Charlie shrugged.

“Well, I suppose you'll have to stick to small-talking when he picks his books up then. I think I like this shirt,” she then added with another look into the mirror. “Anything else you wanna try on?”

–

“There you go.” She smiled friendly at an elderly man as she helped him to put the three books he had chosen into a bag. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the door opening and caught a glimpse of a plaid shirt before attending to the next person in line, a middle-aged woman with four children, two of them twins, who was returning the biggest stack of books she remembered any person ever borrowing.

When she was finished scanning all the books and had told the woman and her impatiently babbling and hopping toddlers that she was still missing two books, she caught another glimpse of the plaid in one of the big, comfortable armchairs.

A chewing-gum eating teenager, three pre-schoolers and a young woman later she sat back down, closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. For some reason  _everyone_ seemed to come to the library on this sunny day. She hadn't had a full minute for herself since she had started her shift two hours ago.

Opening her eyes she saw that the plaid had vanished. Great. Now she hadn't even talked to Dean. After a glance around the relatively empty library, she got up quickly and went towards the restrooms, returning only a few minutes later to find the plaid back in the armchair and three new people queuing at the reception desk. She got through them rather quickly and then smiled in the direction of the armchair.

Dean stood up and came strolling towards her.

“Hi,” he said and smiled brightly. “Busy day?”

“Extremely.” She attempted to smile as well but it turned out slightly wonky. “And I only just started.”

He leaned onto the desk and looked down at her. Such wonderful green eyes. They were sparkling today, even more so when the sunlight, that was coming through a window above the reception desk, hit them.

“Can I help you with anything?”

She blinked, a little irritated. “Isn't...isn't it my job to help  _you_ out?”

He laughed softly. “I meant, can I get you anything? A coffee? A bottle of water? Chocolate? Something to get you through your shift, you know.”

The door opened and a horde of kids entered the library. She flinched at their loud voices. This was a library, goddammit! A teacher closely followed the kids but did nothing to shut them up. A group of college students in the far corner of the room shot her annoyed looks.

She sighed. “There is a vending machine outside, if you could just get me a chocolate bar. And a coke maybe.” It felt strange asking this stranger – well, he wasn't a stranger but she didn't know him very well – to buy her snacks. Then again, he had offered to...

“No problem. I'll be back in a minute.” He winked at her, then turned around and headed for the door.

Dealing with the kids (especially getting them to lower their voices) was a nightmare but she eventually managed to push them and their teacher off into the section with the children's books.

Back at the front desk two chocolate bars and a bottle of coke awaited her, alongside a handwritten note.

_Stay strong, only a couple more hours. -D_

She looked around but the handsome man was nowhere to be seen.

–

“He bought you chocolate?!” She had to hold the phone a few inches from her ear.

“And a coke,” she mumbled, pushing through the people on her way home. She had called Charlie as soon as she left the library (the day had been _really_ busy and she had barely had time to sit down for a minute) and now her best friend was squealing over the phone.

“You have to call him! Say thank you!”

“No way! I don't even have his number; it's only in the database at work.”

“Can't you access that from home?”

“No chance!”

“And you haven't memorized the number yet?”

She maneuvered around a homeless man on the ground and quickly dropped some change into the cup he was holding out to her. “I have called him  _once_ , Charlie!” she then replied outraged.

“Nevermind, I found it. I'll text you his number. By the way, he doesn't live too far from you.”

“Cha-” But the line was already dead.

Cursing under her breath she slid past a group of tourists and quickly crossed the road. Her phone beeped. It was a text from Charlie, containing only a phone number.

–

Dean was already sitting on one of the tables, reading what appeared to be a very old, very bulky book, when she arrived for the afternoon shift. She nodded at him when he looked up and he greeted her with a smile.

Today the library was deserted.  _'Why does it always have to be the extreme? Either nobody's here or everybody's here, why can't there be some kind of balance?'_ she thought, sitting down at the desk and starting to go through the books that had been handed back in the morning.

She was very aware of Dean's stares, something that made the butterflies in her stomach very excited. But since he was still sitting at his table (admittedly the one nearest to the front desk), she paid him no attention (looking at someone's reflection in a window isn't paying attention).

The entire evening she had contemplated whether to call him or not, even saved his number to her phone. But in the end she had been too scared, even though she was aware that she still owed him a thank you (and some money).

Somebody cleared their throat behind her. When she turned around, she saw Dean standing in front of her.

“Hi. Just wanted to give back this book.” He handed it to her.

“Okay. Thank you.” She took it mechanically, then looked up at him and smiled. The butterflies were doing somersaults. “Listen, I – um, I wanted...I wanted to say thank you. You know, for getting me the snacks yesterday. You were just gone when I returned.”

“Yeah, I had an appointment. Sorry.”

She swallowed. Her mouth seemed dry and her heart was beating faster than it should. The butterflies raced around in her stomach. “That was very nice of you. You didn't have to -”

“Really, it's fine,” he cut in.

“Thanks.” She quickly fumbled for her purse. “That would be about five dollars?”

But Dean shook his head. “It's fine. You don't have to pay me back.” And without giving her a chance to protest he left again.

–

Charlie freaked out upon hearing the news and had insisted on (Y/N) calling Dean to suggest a date. “You don't have to use the word  _ date, _ ” she could practically  _ hear _ Charlie rolling her eyes. “Just invite him for a coffee or something.”

The butterflies had jumped so hard at this suggestion that she was feeling slightly queasy. “I'd rather ask him in person,” she told Charlie, convinced that she would never have the courage to actually do so, though.

–

After the weekend (on which Charlie had forced her to google Dean – okay, she had suggested it) there were way too many people giving their books back. When she finally had time for a short break, she saw Dean entering, smiling at her, mouthing “hi” and then disappearing between the high shelves.

She turned back to the books and was just noting down that one of the children's books had been horribly abused (someone had colored in the black-and-white pictures and drawn all over the text – it was a disaster!) when someone approached the desk.

“Hi.” She looked up and right into emerald green eyes.

“Hi, Dean. Found anything?”

But he ignored her question and instead asked: “How...how are you doing?”

She frowned. “I'm fine. How are you?”

“I'm great.” He sounded out of breath and played nervously with the hem of his jacket.

“Good,” she smiled. He didn't have any books on him, so she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Yeah, actually.” He cleared his throat. “I have a question.”

When he didn't continue, her smile got wider. “Yes? What is your question?”

“I...was just wondering...dammit, this is way harder than I thought it was gonna be!”

Okay? “I'm not gonna bite you, you know?”

“Yeah...” He chuckled slightly. “Listen...(Y/N). I was...wondering, if – if you...hm...”

She finally put the book in her hand down and gave him her full attention. Leaning over the desk to get closer to him, she whispered: “Yes, Dean? What were you wondering?” Her heartbeat increased. At the same time she loved and hated being so close to him. It made the butterflies dance excessively.

“I was...wondering, if...you might want to – to gooutwithme?” he finally asked so fast that she could barely understand him.

“Sorry, I'm not sure if I heard that correctly,” she said, but her heart was beating even faster and the butterflies seemed to have multiplied.

Dean took a deep breath. “I was...wondering, if you would like to go out with me,” he repeated a little slower and very, very quiet.

She could feel herself blush. “Like...on a date?” Great, now she had used that word. Didn't she want to keep it casual?!

He nodded. The butterflies attempted to escape her stomach now and for a moment she felt dizzy. What? Really? Was he serious?

“I – yes! Yes, of course!”

“What?” He sounded surprised.

“Yes, I would very much like to go out on a date with you,” she beamed, barely able to contain herself.

A small smile found its way onto his lips. “R-really? I...wow.” Dean quickly grabbed the edge of the desk; it looked like he was feeling dizzy, too.

“So...where do you want to take me?”

“Huh?”

“For our date. Where are we going?” Saying the word made the butterflies jump

“Oh...” He absently rubbed his forehead. “No idea,” he admitted then. “I actually didn't think that far, I thought you were going to say no.”

She chuckled. “Okay, well...how about you think of something and let me know when you have an idea, okay?”

–

Five minutes later she pulled her phone out of her pocket, her fingers trembling. Still feeling a little lightheaded and with the butterflies jumping around in her stomach like they were desperately trying to get out, she called her best friend.

“Charlie!” she whispered excitedly, when the other one answered the phone. “He has asked me out on a date!”

–

That evening she met with Charlie for dinner.

“Oh my god, I can't believe it! That's so cool, congratulations!”

“You sound like we had just announced our engagement,” she joked. And with a sudden spike of panic that made the butterflies freeze in place, she added: “You gotta help me get ready!”

Charlie looked nervous. “(Y/N), I don't know if I'm the right person to do this!”

“But my last date was ages ago! And you're always going out with people!”

“Yes, with _girls_ ,” Charlie groaned. “I have no idea about boys and what they like!” The redhead took a quick sip from her coke. “We're gonna do this!” she then said, faking confidence.

–

When she checked her phone the next morning, she had a text from Dean. She had given him her number the day before, so he could reach her to suggest something.

_Dinner and movie? Sorry, not creative. -D_

Her heart was beating faster than it should, considering that she hadn't left bed yet.

_Would love to. How about tonight? There is a movie about that book we discussed that has come out last week. (Y/N) :)_

When she pressed “send” the butterflies started dancing again.

Dean replied while she was eating breakfast.

_Pick you up at 6?_

She quickly checked her schedule, then typed a reply.

_6:30 at the library? My shift ends late._

_Okay, see you later._

–

The hours simply wouldn't go by. She checked the time every five minutes, desperate to finally get off her shift. She had lied to Dean a little. Her shift actually ended at 5:30 but she was going to meet Charlie after that to get ready. (“One hour, (Y/N)?!  _One_ hour?! That's not even nearly enough to get you all pretty and then back to the library!”)

People were walking in and out, bringing and taking books, asking for advice, phoning, mailing, reading. She hoped that Dean would come to read a little but he didn't show up. (“He's probably taking the whole day to get ready, smart kid! One hour isn't enough time!”)

Finally, after what felt like the longest, most boring day ever, she left the library, jumped into Charlie's car (“One hour!”) and they went home.

“I've taken the liberty to prepare some outfits for you while you were busy at work.”

“Course you have.” She sighed. Charlie's style was a little...different. The redhead looked good in her clothes, that's not what she meant, but she wasn't sure if Charlie knew what clothes fitted her best.

“Hey, cheer up! You're going on a date! And I've taken the day off of work for you.”

“You have? But what are they doing without you? Mean viruses will attack your precious servers when the head of security isn't there to protect them!”

Charlie slapped her arm and grinned. “Shut up. They'll do fine without me. Besides, the system is almost perfectly safe. I tried to hack into it the other day -”

“You hacked into your own company's computers?”

“- to check if they were safe and it took me five hours. They'll be okay until tomorrow.”

–

One hour, a lot of stress and clothes, and an almost breakdown on Charlie's part later, the car came to a squealing stop in front of the library again.

“Good luck! Let me know how it went! And text me if you need anything.”

“Thank you, Charlie.” She gave her friend a quick kiss onto the cheek before jumping out of the car and quickly running up the steps to hide in the entrance hall.

After long discussions and many different clothes, they had settled on a simple light blue blouse and tight (“They're not  _too_ tight, just don't breathe too deep!”) black jeans.

“If he's really that tall you might want to wear heels?” Charlie had suggested but in the end they settled for ballerinas with the hope that the weather would play along.

Makeup-wise they wanted to keep it simply (“He still needs to recognize you and you don't wear a lot of makeup to work.”), so she was only wearing mascara and lip-gloss. Her (Y/H/C) hair was flowing down her shoulders in gently waves.

It was 6:31 when she opened the door again, nodding towards the slightly confused security guard, and left the building. There he was, standing at the bottom of the steps (Charlie's car was gone, thank god), smiling when he recognized her.

“Hi,” Dean said, running his eyes over her body. “Wow! You look – beautiful! I mean, you always look beautiful but you look different today. Suits you!”

She smiled, too, and quickly hopped down towards him.

“Hi. You...also look good,” she admitted, blushing slightly. The butterflies were happy. He was wearing his plaid shirt buttoned underneath a brown leather jacket, his eyes sparkling greener than ever in the evening sun. “So...dinner? And then a movie?”

–

He had freckles, she realized while sitting opposite him on the sunny terrace of the restaurant he had chosen. Lots of them. Underneath his eyes and on his nose. He also had pretty eyelashes. And pretty eyes but she had already known that of course. Still, they looked even prettier in the sunlight. He had shaved and now his cheeks and chin were smooth. She had liked the stubble but at least now it wasn't there to distract her from those smooth lips of his. Lips that she desperately wanted to kiss but told herself not to.  _'At least wait till the end of the night!'_

Aside from his perfect face, he also had perfect hands. Hands that were currently putting food into his mouth (lips, those lips again!). She couldn't help but notice that he had perfect white teeth as well. Of course his teeth were perfect, everything about him was perfect!

“Is the food okay?” the lips formed now and she blinked a couple of times before she was able to answer.

“Um...yeah. Yes, it's great. Why are you asking?”

“Because you're not eating,” Dean chuckled.

“Oh.” She blushed. Hard. How long had she been staring at him? “I like the necklace.” She pointed to the amulet around his neck and quickly put her fork into her mouth, unaware of what was on it.

“Thanks. My brother gave it to me when we were kids.”

“You have a brother?”

“Yes. Name's Sammy. He's four years younger than me, pre-law.” He made a face.

“Are you not at uni?” He had never looked for any textbooks, only entertainment literature but that didn't mean anything. Most unis had their own libraries with lots of textbooks.

“Nope. I'm a mechanic. Not really the uni-guy. What about you?”

They talked about everything during dinner. About their families, their past, their current jobs, their plans for the future – and of course, about books. It turned out that Dean loved books a lot and that he read whenever he could spare some time. He joked that there were only three things in life that he loved: Books, cars and pie. The latter he proved by ordering them both large slices of apple pie for dessert.

He also insisted on paying. When she mentioned that he had already paid for her chocolate bars, he said, she could buy the movie tickets for them.

–

However, when they arrived at the cinema she was unable to pay for their tickets.

“What do you mean, they're closed on Tuesdays?! What kind of stupid shit is that?! Sorry,” he shot her an apologetic glance, then stared at the door again as if he considered breaking it down to let himself in.

She waved her hand. “Don't worry, I don't mind swearing.”

“This was such a nice evening and now this idiotic fucking piece of motherfucking cra-”

“Okay, I think I get it, Dean. Now stop, people are looking.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled again and gave the door one last angry stare. “Now what? I really wanted to see a movie.”

“We could come back tomorrow?” she suggested, a little disappointed herself. Why didn't they check if the cinema was open? Then again, which cinema was _not_ open on Tuesdays?

“Or...” He paused.

“Yes?”

“Nevermind, it's a stupid idea.”

“Tell me!” she demanded.

Dean sighed. “I have quite a big DVD collection at home.”

She raised her eyebrows. Was he suggesting – ?

“I can understand if you don't want to -”

“Actually, I would love to. DVD sounds just fine. And we're not wasting our money on a stupid film in a stupid cinema that isn't even open in Tuesdays!”

–

_You're WHAT?!_

_Going to his place to watch a DVD._

_Are you out of your mind?! What if he's dangerous???_

_He's not. But I can give you his address and text you every hour if that calms you?_

_Yes. And I'll come there myself if you don't reply to my messages._

_Once every hour!_

_How long are you planning to stay?_

_Not overnight._

_Ok. Have fun :-)_

_Thank you :*_

She sighed and put her phone back into her pocket.

“Everything alright?” Dean asked from the driver's seat and gave her a curious look.

“Yeah. Just a friend of mine wanting to know if I'm having fun.”

“You told her about the cinema?”

“Yes. And she wanted me to give her your address.”

He looked back onto the road. “Be happy. She's just concerned about you.” Then he looked back at her. “I can drive you home if you don't -”

“No! Really, Dean, DVD sounds great.”

–

His apartment was small but homely. Dean got them something to drink while she chose the movie. Then they got comfy on the soft couch in the living room, sitting only inches apart.

They got through half of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ before Dean casually decided to take her hand and she chose her pee break (slash texting-Charlie-to-let-her-know-I'm-still-alive-break) wisely in order to occupy her mind with other things during the second half of the movie.

When their lips met just as Gandalf spoke his famous line _“You shall not pass!”_ , the butterflies in her stomach exploded. She had been right, his lips were smooth. And warm. And they felt _so good_. Now she was quite happy over the absence of stubble. One of his hands found its way into her hair while the other one remained on her back. She had flung both arms around his neck, pulling his body closer to hers.

He tasted like pie and mint and beer. He smelled like leather and books and heat. And he felt strong under her hands, muscular but soft all the same.

They didn't talk when their lips finally parted, just breathed. His breath felt hot on her skin but she didn't mind, didn't want to draw back.

She didn't know how long they stayed like this. All she knew was, that she was sitting on his lap, head leaning against his, fingers intertwined as the screen went black and the credits rolled.

“I should probably get you home,” Dean whispered after the DVD had stopped. “You have work tomorrow and so do I.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, making no move to get up.

They sat like this, just staring at the black TV screen in front of them until her phone buzzed.

“Shit,” she mumbled and reached for it but ultimately had to climb down from Dean's lap.

_ARE YOU OKAY?!_

_Yes, I'm fine. We've been busy._

It took only seconds for Charlie to reply.  _ By busy you don't mean...? _

_NO! Hell no! Just...snogging._

Charlie's reply was a grinning emoji.

“I'll better go,” she then said to Dean. “It's been a great night but you're right; tomorrow's work.”

“I'll drive you,” he said, not accepting her protests and quickly gathered his jacket and his car keys.

–

They drove in silence until they reached her apartment building.

“Thank you, Dean. I haven't had this much fun in ages.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Maybe it's not so bad that the cinema's not open on Tuesdays after all.”

She grinned. “No, I guess we were lucky.” She unbuckled her seat belt and hesitated for a second. “Can we repeat that?”

“Sure, why not? There are two more movies and then there's always _The Hobbit_ ,” he joked.

“I'm not sure how much of the film I remember,” she admitted, laughing.

“See you tomorrow? I need some more books.”

“I'll be where I always am.” She winked, then leaned forward and stole one last kiss from him before getting out of the car.

After letting Charlie know that she had made it home safely, she opened another message.

_ Good night, sweetheart. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Dean :* _

 


End file.
